Lean Thinking: A Strategy for Operational Excellence

Program Overview

Lean thinking is a management philosophy that focuses every process on customer value and the systematic removal of waste. This course explains the five lean principles of value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection, and shows how to apply them in manufacturing, service and government settings. Participants learn to identify the eight wastes, map current and future value streams, apply tools such as 5S, standard work, visual management, kanban and SMED, solve problems with A3 thinking, run kaizen events and build a lean culture led by managers at the gemba.

Learning Outcomes

• ✓Apply the five lean principles to define value from the customer's perspective for a specific process.
• ✓Identify and quantify the eight wastes in an operational or service process.
• ✓Create current-state and future-state value stream maps with lead time and process time data.
• ✓Implement 5S, standard work and visual management in a pilot work area.
• ✓Solve a recurring operational problem using A3 thinking and root cause analysis.
• ✓Plan and facilitate a kaizen event with measurable improvement targets.

Target Audience

• Operations and production managers
• Process improvement and excellence officers
• Service delivery and shared services managers
• Team leaders and supervisors driving improvement

Detailed Program Modules

Training Methodology

Applied Project & Assessment